


Lights Out

by dxntloseurhead



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: How Do I Tag This, I wrote this for my english class, Murder, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Power Outage, Sleepovers, also ik it makes no sense but pls bear with me, also might write more involving these characters??? idk yet, its completely unchanged from the version i handed in, the deadline was coming up fast, they basically nancy drew it the fuck up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 06:56:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21316042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dxntloseurhead/pseuds/dxntloseurhead
Summary: "Upon approaching the bathroom, Rachel saw that the door was shut. After knocking gently, she stood by for what seemed like an eternity. No response. Not wanting to wait any longer, Rachel turned the doorknob and gradually began to push open the large wooden door, making her way into the room. The sight she saw when she shone the bright flashlight towards the bathtub stole the breath from her lungs."
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Lights Out

**Author's Note:**

> i was originally gonna wait until i got the grade back from my teacher to post this but i wanted to post it now so y'all fuckers are getting it early, you're welcome.
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: slightly graphic description of a dead body, and also just murder in general. it's not too bad since it was for school but yknow.

Rachel Thompson paced around the bedroom in her friend Lizzie Hudson’s apartment. She stared at the phone in her hand, being the only light in the pitch black room. The white glow of the screen illuminated her face, which showed a bored expression. The wind howled loudly outside as Rachel shivered, wishing that she had brought warmer pajamas with her.

“This is the worst sleepover ever,” Rachel complained. “Can’t we do _something?_” She heard Lizzie scoff.

“We _can’t_ do anything,” Lizzie pointed out. “The power is out. We’ve got no lights.”

“We have cellphones, which have flashlights. Not to mention candles are a thing,” stated Claire Law, sounding slightly irritated.

Another flashlight was turned on in the corner, this one belonging to Avery King. She squinted her eyes, trying to adjust to the bright light that was now shining in her face. Avery looked tired, both literally and figuratively.

“Guys, it’s been like four hours since the power went out,” Avery remarked. “I don’t think it’s going to come back on any time soon, we should go to sleep.”

Loud laughter erupted from the rest of the group. Even Nora Brooks, the quiet, meek one, let out a small giggle. Avery frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. Shaking her head, she turned off her phone again and laid down.

“Quit being such a killjoy, Avery,” Rachel complained. “We just want to have some fun!”

“Yeah, Avery,” Claire agreed, glaring in Avery’s direction. “You’re free to leave any time, you know.”

“Whatever,” Avery sighed, “but don’t come whining to me when you’re all cranky and tired first thing in the morning.”

After a little while, Rachel began to feel guilty for being so awful to Avery. She quietly crossed the room, sitting down on her sleeping bag. She was about to apologize; however, she quickly realized that Avery had already fallen asleep. Letting go of a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding, Rachel laid down and tucked herself into the sleeping bag, falling asleep to the sound of the other girls talking.

Hours later, Rachel woke up. Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, she checked the time on her cellphone. The clock now read 3:01 a.m. along the top of the screen. Everyone around her was asleep… except Avery. _Okay, no big deal. She’s probably just using the bathroom._ Rachel waited five, ten, fifteen minutes, before deciding to get up and figure out what was going on. She stood, stretching her legs, then proceeded to slowly cross through the room, carefully stepping over the sleeping bodies of her friends.

Upon approaching the bathroom, Rachel saw that the door was shut. After knocking gently, she stood by for what seemed like an eternity. No response. Not wanting to wait any longer, Rachel turned the doorknob and gradually began to push open the large wooden door, making her way into the room. The sight she saw when she shone the bright flashlight towards the bathtub stole the breath from her lungs.

Avery was dead.

Creeping nearer to the bathtub while trying not to freak out too much, she closely examined the body of her friend. Avery’s fuzzy bubblegum pink pajama top was now stained a deep crimson in the middle and her skin was as cold and white as snow. Her hazel eyes, which oddly remained open, were starting to cloud over. Rachel soon began to panic, threading her fingers through her caramel brown hair, before letting out an ear piercing scream. Almost instantly, Claire came rushing into the room.

“What’s going on?” Claire asked. Rachel turned the flashlight back towards Avery’s corpse, but refused to look at it.

“She’s dead,” Rachel began to sob. “Avery’s _dead_.”

Claire gasped, her eyes widening in shock. She held two fingers to Avery’s neck, checking for a pulse, but she found nothing. Just then, Lizzie and Nora entered the room. Lizzie looked like she was about to speak, yet she cut herself off when she saw exactly what had happened. The four girls stood in silence for a few moments, trying to decide what to do. Finally, Nora spoke up.

“I think we should figure out who’s behind this,” she said, fiddling with the strings on her amethyst purple unicorn onesie. She looked around at her friends, who all slowly began to nod.

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Rachel asked.

“We can’t, remember?” Claire reminded her.

“Right,” Rachel replied, though she couldn’t quite shake the feeling that they had to get help from _somebody_.

The group headed back to Lizzie’s bedroom, with Claire being last to leave. Rachel caught Claire give Avery’s body one last glance before shutting the door and she almost swore that she saw a hint of a smirk on her face. Brushing it off, she continued ahead, though the image of Avery laying there dead was burned into her brain. The sight of her empty eyes and still figure haunted Rachel to no end. She couldn’t believe such a thing could actually happen, it almost seemed like a horrible nightmare.

Rachel, Lizzie, Claire and Nora sat in a circle in the bedroom, staring at each other. None of them had any clue what to do and nobody wanted to be the first one to speak up. Suddenly, Claire turned to Nora and started whispering.

“Don’t you think it’s kinda… how Lizzie… stone cold…” Rachel couldn’t make out everything Claire was saying, but she got the main point of it: Lizzie was her main suspect.

Rachel clenched her fist tightly. _Now isn’t the time for making ridiculous accusations about each other!_ Lizzie cleared her throat, and both Claire and Nora immediately went silent.

“Let’s get back on track,” Lizzie said. Her eyes narrowed and she furrowed her brow. Rachel began to suspect that Lizzie heard what Claire was saying, but if she did, she said nothing of it. Rachel, Lizzie and Nora began to discuss several theories about who the murderer could be and what happened; however, Claire remained oddly quiet, though as time went on, Rachel started to notice Claire becoming rather irritated out of the corner of her eye.

“You know what? I’m sick of this,” Claire chimed in, breaking her silence. Everyone else in the room stopped talking when they heard her speak.

“What do you mean?” Nora asked.

“You wanna know who I think killed Avery? I think it was Lizzie,” Claire accused. “She’s been acting off this entire time, and she seemed so emotionless when she saw her body!”

Lizzie gasped, appalled. “You think I could have done something as horrible as _that?_” she exclaimed. “What kind of person do you think I am?”

“Nobody knows what kind of person you are because you never open up to anybody!” Claire shouted, now being merely inches apart from Lizzie’s face. The two glared at each other for a moment before Claire backed away.

The room went dead silent. Rachel nervously looked around at her friends, trying to find a way to break the tension, but before she could, Claire stood up.

“Whatever,” she sneered, rolling her deep brown eyes. “I’m out.” Claire stomped out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.

Rachel looked back at her other two friends, and she noticed that Nora had moved over, distancing herself from Lizzie. She frowned. _Could Lizzie have done it?_ Rachel shook her head. She knew that they should leave this up to the authorities, but what if it ends up being too late by the time the power is back? Each moment that passed was time lost; time that a proper investigation needed in order to be successful, time that the murderer has to get away with their crime, time that they would never face justice.

Not wanting to waste a second, Rachel began to look around the room. She shone her flashlight closely to anything she could see, searching to find any sort of evidence to prove Lizzie’s innocence, even if it was small. Rachel thought back to what she had seen when leaving the bathroom; Claire’s smirk seemed especially suspicious now that she was accusing Lizzie of committing the crime. She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she weighed the options and considered the evidence she currently had, not wanting Avery’s murderer to be any of her friends.

Rachel soon felt somebody tap on her shoulder, and she turned around to find Nora standing behind her.

“What’s up?” Rachel asked, trying to hide her displeasure at being distracted from the investigation.

“Can I help you? I think I have some ideas to find out the truth,” Nora responded, not making eye contact with Rachel. Hesitantly, Rachel accepted. She hoped that allowing Nora to assist her wouldn’t end up slowing her down and allowing the murderer to get away.

Rachel stood up, stretching out her legs before heading towards the bathroom, with Nora following closely behind her. Although she had already looked here, a second thorough inspection certainly wouldn’t hurt. Rachel took one last sympathetic look at Avery’s face before continuing her search. _I’m so sorry, Avery,_ she thought, _we’ll find who did this to you_.

A few minutes later, Rachel heard heavy footsteps coming closer.

“What are you _doing?_” Claire demanded, stopping behind Rachel. Her arms were folded over her chest and her face was twisted into a scowl.

Rachel stood, facing Claire at eye level. “We’re actually trying to find evidence pointing towards who did it, instead of making baseless accusations,” she said in a passive-aggressive tone.

“I did not make baseless accusations! I’m simply pointing out that Lizzie is suspicious.”

Just then, Nora lifted an item out of the garbage can. “What’s this, then?” she questioned, holding up a blood-stained pink pocket knife by the handle with a hand encased in a powder blue rubber glove. Claire’s face went as pale white as Avery’s as her eyes examined the object, realizing what it was.

“Th-that’s not mine,” she stammered, trying to back away.

“Then explain this,” Nora replied, pointing at something on the knife’s handle. Upon closer inspection, Rachel realized that they were Claire’s initials: CL. It was _the_ knife, the one Claire always bragged about.

“This knife was custom made for you by a friend of your father,” Rachel stated more than asked as she slipped on a pair of gloves of her own, before taking the weapon from Nora. “It would be a shame if he found out what you used it for.”

“Give that back!” Claire shrieked, trying to grab the pocket knife from Rachel’s hands. Rachel tried to back away; however, she was soon cornered as the bathtub was behind her. Claire yanked the weapon away from her, resulting in a struggle. It soon became apparent that Claire was trying to kill Rachel, and she almost succeeded, before a tall, masculine figure appeared behind her, stopping her.

Rachel looked up to see the person’s face and was met by a rather young-looking police officer. She tilted her head, confused, before seeing that Lizzie was standing in the doorway.

“Claire Law, you’re under arrest for the murder of Avery King,” the officer stated as he de-armed Claire and locked her in handcuffs. “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” As Claire was being dragged away by the police, Rachel could hear her protests ring throughout the apartment.

“Fine! I did it! But she deserved it!” she cried, fighting to get away from the officers. “She was so whiny and annoying! This all would have worked out if it weren’t for those nosy idiots! _Lizzie_ deserved to take the fall, not me!”

When Claire’s voice became distant enough that the girls could no longer hear her, they all breathed a huge sigh of relief, before pulling each other into a group hug. Suddenly, the lights flickered back on, and the three of them cheered. After the excitement died down, Rachel turned to Lizzie.

“How did the police know about Claire and Avery?” Rachel asked.

“After you guys started investigating further into the murder, I left and managed to slip past Claire to get outside,” Lizzie explained. “I went to the house next door and used their phone to call the police, since they have a generator.” Rachel nodded, understanding.

“What are we gonna do about… this?” Nora questioned, gesturing to their friend’s dead body. Tears began to well up in her eyes and she bit her lip, trying to hold them back.

“The police are coming back to collect Avery’s body and search for more evidence,” Lizzie clarified.

“My point still stands, this _is_ the worst sleepover ever,” Rachel joked in an attempt to lighten the mood. Lizzie laughed, nodding.

“It was,” she agreed. “Here’s to the next one! Hopefully with a little less death this time.” The girls raised their fists in the air, cheering.

**Author's Note:**

> hey so if you're reading this, you either managed to make it through this story or just skipped to the end! congratulations. pls don't be too rude about this, it is just for an english class, but also if you have some legitimate criticism or anything go ahead and comment that i won't be mad.


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